His silhouette on the court, his number 41 jersey on the vaults of the American Airlines Center and soon a statue outside the arena where he became one of the greatest basketball players of his time: the Dallas Mavericks celebrano Dirk Nowitzki with a big one ceremony after the match won against the Golden State Warriors.
Beyond 50 minutes of show, with music, video tributes and a Nowitzki’s long speech, light moments like the one in which Jason Kidd, former teammate and winner of the 2011 NBA title with the Mavs, and now coach of the team, asks the German if he doesn’t want to accept a 10 day contract “because now we give them to everyone“, And of course a lot of emotion.
Mark Cuban, owner of the Mavs, spared no expense in celebrating the greatest player in franchise history, 21 seasons in Dallas and in which he became the sixth-best NBA All-Time Scorer with 31560 points. An incredible milestone for a European player, arrived in America in 1998 at the dawn of what was to be a wave of “FIBA area” players in the NBA.
Cuban unveiled during the ceremony the model of the statue which will be positioned in the future in front of the America Airlines Center. One honor reserved in the history of the NBA only for the great ones, like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
“I want everyone to see your greatness forever, Dirk“, So Cuban”Your name is on the pitch, your silhouette, even if you didn’t want to, is on the court. And now your jersey number is also hanging on the vaults of our arena (…) but that’s not all, because I’ve always wanted everyone to see Dirk Nowitzki even more, and so I’ll keep my promise“. The statue will represent Nowitzki in his classic “pose”, the one-leg fadeaway which became a trademark, a symbol like Jabbar’s hook-sky or Michael Jordan’s famous tongue.
